


the triumph over it

by GuardianKarenTerrier



Series: tumblr prompts/ask game answers [15]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Claustrophobia, Fear of Abandonment, Food Issues, Gen, Podfic Welcome, Protective Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Protective Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Sandboy, Yes both of them, even hawkmoth does not like this akuma, no one likes this akuma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22262698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianKarenTerrier/pseuds/GuardianKarenTerrier
Summary: Her partner's luck must be cancelling hers out today, because at no point had either of them planned to end up trapped in the sarcophagus together."I hate this stupid exhibit," Marinette mutters, straining to shove the lid off the sarcophagus.  Normally, that's no problem when she's transformed, but this particular villain must have them under something heavy or have dropped them underwater or something because it doesn't budge.Face pressed into her stomach, having been tumbled in after her in a particularly undignified position that Marinette is doing her best to ignore, Chat Noir whimpers.She pauses.He hasn't actually said anything in a while now.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: tumblr prompts/ask game answers [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1478756
Comments: 61
Kudos: 861





	the triumph over it

**Author's Note:**

> for an anonymous tumblr prompt: any of the lovesquare, someones greatest fear

Marinette is not sure how they ended up in this position. 

She definitely doesn't _like_ it, though. 

It's not enough, apparently, that she _really_ needed to be studying right now. It's not enough that this akuma had interrupted her in the process of finally, finally getting up the courage to ask Adrien if he wanted to study together. It's not _enough_ that she thinks he'd been starting to say _yes_ when today's villain had come bursting through the wall shouting that he was to be addressed as Alpha. 

Ladybug will not be doing that. 

If she's lucky, and she's always lucky, _no one_ will be doing that. The man definitely doesn't need anyone feeding into his delusions. She's surprisingly irritated that even Hawkmoth would stoop to a self-proclaimed pickup artist akuma. Hawkmoth may be evil, but there are _limits_ , and Ladybug is already well beyond hers. 

And her partner's luck must be cancelling hers out today, because at no point had either of them _planned_ to end up trapped in the sarcophagus together. 

"I hate this stupid exhibit," Marinette mutters, straining to shove the lid off the sarcophagus. Normally, that's no problem when she's transformed, but this particular villain must have them under something heavy or have dropped them underwater or _something_ because it doesn't budge. 

Face pressed into her stomach, having been tumbled in after her in a particularly undignified position that Marinette is doing her best to ignore, Chat Noir whimpers. 

She pauses. 

He hasn't actually said anything in a while now. 

"Chat Noir?" Marinette says hesitantly. "Hey, are you okay?" 

Chat Noir doesn't answer her. 

His ring beeps, and not for the first time, but she isn't worried about that. She's not going to look, and he won't show her when he knows she doesn't want him to, and it's dark in here for her anyway. 

She _is_ worried about _him_. 

"Chat Noir," she repeats, when he shivers instead of responding. "Are you okay?" There's something dark stirring in her gut, something more than her irritation at Hawkmoth and his akuma for throwing yet another wrench into her day. Chat Noir going quiet has never been a good sign. 

And they're sharing a confined space, and his ring is still counting down, and Marinette is trying hard not to listen to the worry stirring in the back of her mind about just how much air this sarcophagus holds. She doesn't _think_ that can be much of a problem, not with its age and not with the number of people that have been trapped in it at one point or another (no, seriously, why is this exhibit even still _open_ , this is becoming a serious hazard), but she doesn't _know_. 

Neither one of them really has much space to move, but Marinette can squirm around enough to get her hands on Chat Noir's shoulders and squeeze. She's not completely sure what's going on with him but she has a suspicion, and making sure he has something else to focus on certainly can't hurt. "Minou, I really need you to answer me." She takes a deep breath, and then another. Softly, before she can think too much about the way he'd _let_ himself be pushed in here with her, because the akuma had been swiping at her and not at him, she asks, "Chat Noir, are you claustrophobic?" 

He starts, which is hard not to notice with the way he's huddled up against her. She knows he wouldn't lie to her anyway but she's not surprised when he says, shakily, "I think you mean claws-trophobic." 

"Chat," she says. 

He shudders, ducking his head as much as he can and pressing into her hands.

She grips his shoulders tighter. "Oh, minou. I should have been more careful." 

"It's not your fault," Char Noir whispers. He's leaning harder on her now. If she listens closely, she can hear his tail thumping restlessly- lashing through the small space with nowhere to go. "He was getting too close to you." 

Ladybug doesn't roll her eyes at that, but it's a near thing. "I didn't say it was my fault, Chat Noir, I said I should have been more careful. It wasn't _your_ fault either, but you don't _have_ to leap in front of me every time." When she thinks about it later, she'll realise it's this specific akuma that drives her to add, "I can take care of myself." 

He takes a deep enough breath that she thinks it's at least partly to calm down. His breath is very warm against her stomach when he says, softly, "I know that. But I want to help." 

Marinette doesn't _mean_ to growl. Not now, not here, not when he's down to his last faint green glow and she's had the stress of the day building up behind her eyes for too long. 

She growls anyway, and Chat Noir flinches back hard enough to thump against the lid of the sarcophagus. 

Cold trickles down her spine. _He's not supposed to be afraid of me. I don't ever want him to be afraid of me!_

But he _is_ , she remembers now, shutting her eyes as the green light of his transformation flashes and then fades. Sandboy had taken her powers, but he'd shown Chat Noir a version of _her_. He's afraid of- 

Of _what_ , exactly? She strives to remember _exactly_ what that version of herself had said to him, but the memory is hazy with adrenaline and fear. She'd been focused on winning their fight, not on facing their fears. 

She should have paid more attention to what had scared her partner. 

She hadn't really been all that afraid herself, even then, because he'd been with her and she can face anything as long as she has him, but suddenly Ladybug has a very, very bad feeling about Chat Noir's nightmares. 

They don't have time to talk about it now. They're still in the middle of a _battle_ right now, she has to prioritise what she can help with immediately and what will have to wait for later. 

Even if she doesn't want to let any of it lie until later. 

"Chat Noir?" Marinette grips his shoulders tighter again. She doesn't open her eyes just in case she _can_ see him. "Do you have food for Plagg?" 

"No." It's Plagg's gruff voice that answer her, not Chat Noir's. "He couldn't sneak any food out with him today." 

She's frowning. She knows she's frowning, because she's frowning hard enough to feel like it's going to crack her face. "Sneak out?" 

Chat Noir hisses something at his kwami. 

"Kitty." She can't get a better grip on him than she already has, but her hands twitch as if she can still pull him closer. "What does he mean?" 

Chat Noir doesn't answer her and she immediately realises the problem. Wincing, she hastily revises her question. "Are you having trouble keeping food for Plagg on you?" 

His shoulders shift under her hands, lifting and falling in half a shrug, but then she feels the air change directions as he nods minutely. 

"Oh, minou, you should have told me." Her hands tighten on his shoulders. "Even if you can't always get cheese for him, I could carry it, too." 

Plagg sniffs, loudly, and she feels him settle on her shoulder. Ladybug twitches, trying to hint that he should go back to Chat Noir, and the kwami flutters off again but not before saying, "You and what pockets?" 

Ladybug doesn't dignify that with a response. Instead, she says, "Spots off," and wraps her arms tighter around Chat Noir at his shaky inhalation. 

It's hardly the first time they've detransformed in front of each other. They've had to do it a number of times now, but it's never stopped being just as strange as that first time with Dark Owl. She trusts him not to look but she still feels like- well, like she _should_ feel vulnerable, and yet she doesn't. She trusts him too much to even feel _uncomfortable_. 

Marinette's eyes are still closed but she knows when Tikki scrambles into her purse and back out. She knows that Tikki will have grabbed an extra cookie for Plagg, but it isn't until Chat Noir makes a soft, startled sound that it occurs to Marinette that her kwami would want to make sure that _Chat_ has food, too. 

Because he didn't use to have trouble keeping Plagg's cheese on him. Something's changed. 

Marinette shifts enough to wrap her arms around his shoulders entirely and draw him closer. If he _asks_ , then it's only because she knows he's claustrophobic. If he asks. 

But it's really because now that she's actually paying attention, he's lost weight. He's always been slim but he hasn't always felt as though he's made up entirely of sharp angles. 

If he's having trouble keeping Plagg fed, when she _knows_ how seriously he takes that, what about _himself_? 

"Spots on," Marinette says, the second Tikki taps her shoulder, because she needs to talk to her partner _right now_ and it's better not to talk too much out of their suits. They still don't know for sure why they don't recognise each other's voices- for all that Marinette has tried to convince Chat Noir that it's because they probably don't know each other outside of their hero work, she doesn't really believe it herself. They're too closely attuned _not_ to have been drawn to each other at some point. 

Tikki won't confirm that for her, but she won't outright deny it, either. Tikki's not exactly shy about telling her when she's wrong, which means that's far too close to confirmation for Marinette to risk it. 

Chat Noir's quiet 'Claws out' is too muffled to make out clearly, but he lets out a relieved sigh once he's armoured back up that sets Marinette to wondering about his night vision. She wonders if darkness contributes to his claustrophobia. 

But the only other person she knows for certain has claustrophobia is Adrien, and Marinette is hardly going to go up to him and _ask_ him about it. Besides, it's _Ladybug_ that knows about that. 

(Tikki might have been alarmed about Marinette's diary but frankly, Marinette had desperately needed it to keep track of what Ladybug knows versus what Marinette knows). 

"If you're having trouble getting food, Chat, all you had to do was tell me." Marinette strains to keep any hint of scolding out of her voice- she doesn't think that's going to help right now, and it could very well hurt. It had taken her far too long to pick up on, but Chat Noir doesn't take even light-hearted reprimands well. He'll smile and crack a joke and try to shrug it off, but he holds himself like he's going to shatter the whole time, and he won't look at her after. 

Marinette's still straining to recall what Sandboy had revealed but she has a sinking feeling that she has a pretty good idea. 

"It's a temporary thing," Chat says, but quietly. He still doesn't sound much like himself- he sounds unsteady and uncertain, which aren't things she's used to associating with him. They aren't things she _wants_ to associate with him. "It'll be easier again soon." 

Marinette hopes they have the same definition of _soon_. 

She isn't sure what could be temporarily restricting her partner's access to food, and for the first time she wants to ask. She wants to _pry_ , in fact, she wants to urge the truth from him so that she knows how to _fix_ this, because he's all shudders and sharp angles under her hands, but she _can't_. 

He'd tell her, if she asked. He'd tell her anything she asked. The amount of trust he puts in her is more than a little terrifying. Marinette's not always comfortable with the trust civilians give them, but it's still different, when it's Chat Noir. He's never hesitated to call her out when he thinks she's in the wrong, but he's never been anything but confident that her mistakes can be _fixed_. She hopes he knows she'd always support him just as much in turn, but she suspects he doesn't, and she doesn't know what else she can do to convince him. 

She could hurt him so easily, without ever meaning to, and that scares her. 

So she doesn't push him to tell her any more than he already has. She doesn't say any of the things crowding up behind her teeth, trying to spill out before she can think better of it. She wants to know. She doesn't want to know. 

She wants to _help_ , more than anything, and she doesn't have to know specifics to be able to help. 

Marinette silently promises herself to start overstocking her purse for Tikki, and to try and get her hands on Camembert for Plagg if she can. She knows Chat's kwami _will_ share cookies with Tikki, but she also knows how much Plagg loves his cheese, and even in the handful of times she's met Plagg she's already fond enough of him to want him to have what he prefers. 

And he might be able to tell her what _Chat_ prefers. 

She almost does let go of Chat Noir when it finally occurs to her that might make his phobia _worse_ , but from the way he's leaning into her hands she thinks she'd better not. Instead she suggests, "Now might be a good time to use Cataclysm? I don't think either one of us wants to be in here any longer." 

He nods once, breathless against her, and her heart wrenches again because he _could_ have used Cataclysm the moment he was transformed. It's not like him to wait for her permission, but she has the terrible feeling that he'd done just that. 

The fight itself goes quickly, once they're out of the sarcophagus- and out of the surrounding debris, which turns out to be _most of the Louvre,_ and Marinette is wildly grateful for her own superpowers when she figures that out- helped along by the number of annoyed citizens who are actually throwing things at the villain. 

Evidently Marinette's not the only one who thought this 'Alpha' was a step too far. She doesn't see Hawkmoth's mask glow into being, either, and with a combination of glee and irritation she whispers to Chat Noir, "I think Hawkmoth abandoned him." 

The grin he gives her back is a pale imitation of his usual one, and he doesn't crack a joke back at all. 

Marinette _had_ every intention of resuming her study plans after the fight, and she picks up her phone and sees that Adrien _did_ say yes but that he'd have to get back to her about a schedule, and while normally that would be enough to have her on cloud nine for the rest of the day she can hardly concentrate on it. She doesn't know, in the end, exactly what she says back. She types something quickly in response, closes her eyes and hits send, and hopes very hard that whatever she replied made _sense_. She can't bring herself to check, and she'll find out at some point anyway. 

At least Adrien's never seemed to mind much if her first reply doesn't make sense. _Marinette_ still minds, though, so she sets her phone face-down and then moves it away from her desk altogether before turning to the computer and navigating to the Ladyblog. And then to the recorded akuma fights. 

And then to Sandboy. It's not the whole fight, it's whatever Alya had cobbled together out of various people's phone videos later, but it's enough of it. 

Marinette can't watch it all in one go. 

The part where she loses her powers doesn't bother her so much. She knows she'll have them back, and she knows that Chat Noir will protect her as long as she's without them. She's not even sure her fear would be the same a second time around, after how much Chat Noir had guarded her during the fight. 

But _his_ fear, his false Ladybug- 

His fear makes her throat go dry and starts a terrible pressure building behind her eyes. 

At least he knows it's not _her_. At least he never seems to lose track of that. He does spend the whole fight protecting her instead, and- 

And at the time, she hadn't thought too much of it. He always _does_ protect her, even when he shouldn't. She knows that. It hadn't been out of character. 

But now she sees something else in his desperate drive to protect her. 

Chat Noir _does_ have a very bad habit of throwing himself between her and danger, but not- not like this. This feels different, feels _wrong_ , feels like her partner's trying to fight a fear she hadn't taken half as seriously as she should have. 

Marinette rewinds, forces herself to watch it again, and finds herself wincing as Chat Noir throws himself in front of her again- and again- and _again_ \- 

And this time around, she can't help but see it as Chat Noir trying as hard as he can to prove himself. 

His nightmare threatens to get rid of him, and he steps in front of her. 

His nightmare taunts him, and he steps in front of her. 

His nightmare outright attacks him, and he _still_ steps in front of her. 

His too-solid fear, this too-detailed nightmare- 

Any of the times she _has_ told him he's not replaceable- has Chat ever _believed_ her? 

(His nightmare _attacks_ him). 

Marinette can't keep watching, after that. 

She has told Chat Noir he's irreplaceable. She's _sure_ she has. 

How _often_ has she actually told him that? Has it only been that handful of times? She sees him almost every day, at all hours of the day and night now that Hawkmoth's wreaked havoc on all of Paris' schedule, and she knows in a way that's as solid and unshakeable as the earth that they're not just partners, he's part _of_ her. She doesn't know if that was true before they'd been gifted their Miraculous, but it's true _now_. It's not something she thinks could ever be undone even if she _wanted_ to. 

She can't imagine wanting to. 

"Tikki?" 

Her kwami flits to her shoulder, uncharacteristically silent. 

Marinette takes a deep breath in sync with Tikki, who slows her breathing to match. She breathes in and out with her kwami for a count of ten, steadying herself more with every breath, and her voice barely shakes when she says, "Tikki, spots on." 

She's glad, now, that Adrien hadn't been able to set a time for that study session yet. She doesn't have to come up with an excuse this way. 

Patrol's not for hours yet, but Marinette's not that surprised when she runs into Chat Noir after only a brief run. He's out at strange times a lot more often than she is; he always has been. 

He doesn't call out to her. He does land alongside her and run along the roofs with her, leaping and climbing in sync with her swings, laughing under his breath when she starts rounding corners tighter to try and pick up speed. Marinette didn't originally intend to race, but he keeps speeding up, so she keeps speeding up, and eventually they're racing and weaving along the Seine whether they meant to or not. 

She lets him lead her on a merry chase through the city, or he chases her, or they take turns chasing each other- by the time they fall against each other, laughing, deep in Saint-Cloud Park, she's no longer sure which is true. All of them, maybe. Probably. 

"What was _that_ about?" Chat Noir asks her, when he has his laughter under control. He's close enough that when he ducks his head to speak his breath ruffles her hair. "Not that I object, but-" 

Impulsively, Marinette wraps both arms around him and hugs him tight, leaning her head against his chest. She lets out a sigh at the reassuring thrum of his heartbeat; he leaps into danger for her often enough that the steady beating has become a comforting sound. "Chat Noir, you know you're the best partner I could ever have, right?" 

She realises too late how that might be misinterpreted, how alarmingly _final_ it might sound, when Chat Noir goes still beneath her hands. His tail stops flicking, belt buckle clattering where it strikes off a root instead. 

Marinette pulls back only enough to look up at him, suddenly afraid he'll bolt if she lets go, and sees his ears have gone flat. He's avoiding her gaze, even if he's not pulling away. He almost never pulls away from her, not even when she thinks he must be uncomfortable. 

Marinette leans in and hugs him tighter, huffing an indignant breath against his suit. "Kitty, I didn't mean- I meant I'd never want anyone else. _Never,_ Chat." 

His heart rate picks up, and it's not entirely steady anymore. His voice ruffles through her hair again as he murmurs, "Is that a promise, my Lady?" 

"That's a promise, Chat." Marinette doesn't actually want to let go of him now, but he's starting to shift a little restlessly in her hold so she steps back. Chat Noir clearly _likes_ hugs, he initiates them frequently, but he never seems to know what to do with them. Marinette's begun to wonder if she should tell him he doesn't have to wait like that to hug her back, but she's not sure he knows he's doing it. If it's not conscious she doesn't want to call attention to it. 

He still hasn't relaxed. 

"Kitty, I _promise_ you, if I could choose anyone in the world for my partner it would still be you, every time." Marinette's promise comes out much softer than she intends, but her words are steady with surety. "You _are_ the best partner I could ever ask for, and that means I wouldn't ever ask for anyone else." 

Chat Noir's ears are beginning to flick upright again, and his eyes seem a little brighter, and he definitely stands a little straighter for the praise. (She wonders about that sometimes, too- about how Chat Noir has never stopped reacting to praise like it surprises him, every time. As though he's still not used to it. As though it's something he's learned he never to expect). 

Chat starts to say something and has to stop and clear his throat. "Not- not even Carapace?" 

Marinette has a moment to wonder _why Carapace_ , but she doesn't have to know Chat's reasons to know that his fear is genuine, even if he hides it well. _Why_ his first thought is Carapace doesn't matter. 

Though she suspects it has to do with Carapace's power, and Chat Noir's terrible self-sacrificial drive to _protect_. 

"Not even Carapace, kitty," Marinette answers him, her voice still soft in the silent park. Chat Noir's slow, indrawn breath is the loudest thing here, cutting through the cold clear air, and Marinette shivers at it without meaning to. 

"Chat Noir, I wouldn't trade you for the world," she tells him, and she sees something kindle in his eyes, a belief that's different from but related to his belief in _her_ , and Marinette will tell him how important he is to her every day for the rest of their lives if that's what it takes to keep that fire in him glowing like that. 


End file.
